Self-damping measurements of conductors with circular and trapezoidal wires

Self-damping characteristics of three types of conductors with seven different sizes were studied. Conductor types considered were ACSR round and trapezoidal (TW) wires as well as self-damping (SD). The power method was used in the measurement of self-damping of all three types of conductors. For each conductor, damping measurements were made at three tension levels (10, 25 and 40% of rated tensile strength of conductor) for frequencies ranging from 5 to 55 Hz and normalized peak-to-peak amplitudes varying between 25/f to 150/f where f is frequency in Hz. Empirical relationships were derived to estimate the power dissipation values for all other frequency and amplitude levels. Results obtained from tests conducted on ACSR round and trapezoidal wire conductors of similar diameter indicated that the ACSR TW conductor in general has higher internal damping when compared to ACSR round wire conductor. However this trend was not necessarily observed at low frequencies. It was also noted that power dissipation increases with increase in size of the conductor.